Welcome to Special Collections

The Special Collections unit of the Michigan State University Libraries collects, houses, and preserves rare and unique materials within the MSU Libraries. Our materials cover a vast array of topics from Africana to Veterinary Medicine. These materials are available to the public in our reading room.

Special Collections is also responsible for all preservation related activities in the MSU Libraries.

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Discover Special Collections

The Michigan Cookbook Project is an initiative to collect cookbooks and food related materials published in Michigan or produced by Michigan communities, organizations, churches, or businesses. Since 1998, Special Collections has collected over 2,000 Michigan cookbooks with a number dating back to the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The collection is especially rich in ethnic cookery which provides a unique glimpse of how new waves of immigants to Michigan contributed to the culinary heritage of the state. An example is From Borsch to Blueberry Pie (Detroit, 1970) presented by the Ladies Altar Guild of the Holy Ghost Russian Orthodox Church, Detroit, Michigan. Recipes include cheese paskha, kolochanka, Margaret's piroshki, and chocolate brownies a la mode.

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Did you Know...

• The De Proprietatibus Rerum by Bartholomaeus Anglicus was written in the 13th century and is the second encyclopedia ever issued. Special Collections holds two editions of the work, Anton Koberger's Nuremberg edition of 1483, and the 1535 edition translated by John Trevisa and printed in London by Thomas Berthelet. Part of the European History and Culture Materials.
• There were at least 200 different comic strips and daily panels in American newspapers each day throughout the 20th century, for a total of at least 7,300,000 unique episodes! Our Comic Art Collection has about 500,000 of them neatly arranged in scrapbooks, as a sideline to our main focus, the comic books.

Map to the Reading Room in MSU Library